Barangay Ginebra’s Scottie Thompson gestures after hitting a 3-pointer against TNT within the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.–MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—Ginebra coach Tim Cone was on the sting of his seat watching Scottie Thompson and TNT’s Calvin Oftana within the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Christmas Day game at Araneta Coliseum on Monday.
While Thompson and the Gin Kings emerged victorious with an 86-78 victory over the Tropang Giga, Cone lauded the head-to-head battle between the Gilas Pilipinas players.
“My take is, when you put Scottie and Calvin within the court park and allow them to play one-on-one, they’re each going to go at one another to win although they’re best friends. It’s a way of competition that goes on. It’s in an even bigger stage here because you’ve teammates but in the event that they’re on the park, they wouldn’t give one another any edge. They’d be trash-talking, hitting and bumping. You’ll be able to guarantee that,” said Cone.
“People say ‘oh, they’re friends and teammates within the national team so that they might give one another just a little little bit of a back off.’ Nah. Won’t occur. Not these guys at this level. They don’t get this good by being nice guys, they’re gonna go at one another.”
Thompson and Oftana shone for his or her respective teams anew.
Thompson only had 12 points but he made a few crucial triples within the fourth quarter that kept TNT at bay. He also collected seven rebounds and 7 assists.
Calvin Oftana.–MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
Oftana, meanwhile, tallied a game-high 27 points on top of 5 rebounds and three steals for the Tropang Giga.
“Down the stretch, I just wanted me and Calvin to be closer in the sport,” said Thompson in jest.
“We knew one another more in Gilas and we each desired to win for our team. We just did our greatest for our mother teams and after this, we’re still friends. In his last shot, he even hit my head together with his elbow,” he added.
Cone, meanwhile, revealed that Thompson took the challenge of defending Oftana within the fourth quarter after the previous San Beda star got going.
“He (Thompson) actually asked for him. They’re best buddies from Gilas, they were roommates and so they’re really tight. He (Oftana) was getting loose and through a timeout with seven minutes to go, Scottie said, ‘let me have Calvin.’”
“Obviously, it was an important coaching move by Scottie to try this and he took the challenge down the stretch and Calvin was our goal throughout. He’s having an incredible All-Star, MVP-like conference at once and he was really our goal.”
